Pretty Teal Ombre Cake

While I have done a number of rainbow cakes I have been dying to do a tall ombre Cake for a long time. When I was asked to do a teal ombre cake for a birthday recently I was over the moon, especially because teal is one of my favorite colours.

I couldn't be happier with the way the colours turned out, starting with one drop of Americolour turquoise colouring for the first layer and adding 2 extra drops to each following cake layer I was able to get a great colour gradation.

I used the same vanilla cake from my Lamington Cake back in January, double the mixture was a prefect amount to make five decent sized layers and took very well to the colouring. The cake was filled and frosted with white chocolate buttercream in light to dark teal mirroring the inside of the cake.

The beautiful setup was another from the talented girls at Enchanted Empire, a very big thanks to them for letting me use some of their photos.

Photos by: Enchanted Empire

Gumball Machine Cake

Happy Birthday Ebony!

I've been so lucky lately getting to do so many fun cakes. I think of all of them this might be my favorite, probably because I'd love to have a cake like it myself. I was very fortunate when making this the weather had taken a cooler turn and without the humidity I wasn't fighting with sticky fondant. I've been terrible at not getting step by step pictures recently, so just imagine a fluffy pink strawberry cake on the inside layered and covered with white chocolate ganache. It was surprisingly easy to construct, I used two six inch cakes cut in half to give four layers and just trimmed it slightly so it tapered toward the top. To support the weight of the glass bowl and gumballs, I inserted three dowels a little out from the center of the cake. The top of the gumball machine was made of rice krispies (LCMs) on a small cake board to form a cap and avoid adding extra weight on the cake. The coin purse is also made form rice krispies covered in fondant.
Just a minute ago I said imagine the cake inside don't worry about doing that because here it is, pretty layers of pink. I may have been forgetful with my picture taking but the birthday girl wasn't, thanks Ebony for letting me use this picture.

Mini Lemon Meringue Tarts

Lemon Meringue Pie is one of boyfriends favorite sweets, these were a special request from him. I think he was expecting a big pie all to himself so was probably a bit disappointed at the miniature size of these little tarts, but they were yummy all the same. Personally I loved the smaller size of these mini lemon meringue tarts, I really enjoyed the higher crust to filling ratio and to be honest am a sucker for anything in miniature.

Pastry

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup caster sugar

125 grams cold butter (roughly chopped)

1 egg yolk

Lemon Filling

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

2/3 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoon lemon zest (finely grated)

75 grams butter (roughly chopped)

2 egg yolks

Meringue

2 egg whites

1/2 cup caster sugar

To make the pastry- add the flour, sugar, butter and egg yolk in the bowl of a food pocessor, process until all the ingredients are combine and the dough comes together slightly.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly flowered surface and give it a bit of a knead until sooth. Wrap the dough in clingwrap and place in the fridge for half and hour before using.

To make the tarts- lightly grease a 12 hole cupcake/muffin pan with butter and preheat oven to 200 degrees c. Roll out the chilled pastry dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 5mm thick .

Cut out 12 8cm circles from the dough, re-rolling as needed. Press the pastry rounds into the cupcake pan and prick the base and sides with a fork.

Place the tart bases in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans. While the bases are cooling make the filling.

To make the Filling- add the sugar and cornflour to a small saucepan, stir in the lemon juice and the water.

Continue stirring over a medium heat until the mixture boils and gets thicker, turn the heat down to low and continue stiring the simmering mixture for a minute. Take the pan off the heat and quickly stir in the egg yolks, butter and lemon zest. Set the lemon filling aside for 10 minutes to cool.

Spoon the lemon filling evenly between the cooled pastry cases then place in the fridge to set for about one hour.

To make the Meringue- preheat the oven to 240 degrees c. With an electric mixer beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until they form soft peaks. Gradually add the in the sugar, continue beating until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture forms firm peaks. Spoon the meringue gently into a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip.

Roughen the surface of the filling on each tart with a fork, pipe a swirl of meringue onto the top of each tart. Bake the tarts for about 3 minutes, until the meringue is lightly golden.

Enjoy them, they're delicious!!

Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was one of my favorite books when I was little, so I was so very excited when I was asked to make this cake for a little boy's first birthday.

I wish I could show pictures of the rainbow layered cake inside, Hungry Caterpillars love all things rainbow. The cake was vanilla, frosted with buttercream and covered in fondant.

Pancake Cupcakes

Happy Pancake Day!! Any day day that includes pancakes is an awesome day by me and a day that is all about pancakes well I dont think I need to say anything more.

While eating cupcakes for breakfast is not new to me I get that some people might get bit funny about it. With these cupcakes there's no need to feel bad about having them for breakfast or if you look at it the other way around, having pancakes for dessert. These cupcakes are so super quick and easy to make and turned out beautifully, light and airy just like perfect pancakes should be. I couldn't have pancakes without syrup and cupcakes without frosting, so each little cake was finished with some buttery maple syrup frosting and a mini stack of pancakes.

For the Cupcakes

2 cups pancake mix

1 cup milk

Mini pancakes (3 per cupcake, made following the instructions on the pancake mixture)

Maple syrup

To make the cupcakes- preheat oven to 160 degrees c. (325 f) and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cupcake papers.

Add the pancake mix and milk in a medium bowl, Stir together until smooth. Divide the mix evenly between the cupcake pans.

Bake for 12 minutes, until the cupakes are puffy and bounce back when poked. Allow the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack.

Pipe a swirl of frosting onto each of the cupcakes using a large star tip.

Stack 3 mini pancakes together with a little frosting in between to keep them in place.

Top each cupcake with a mini stack of pancakes and finish with a little drizzle of maple syrup.

For the Maple Syrup Frosting

100 grams unsalted butter (softened)

400 grams icing sugar

6 tablespoons maple syrup

To make the frosting- add the butter, sugar and syrup together in a mixing bowl. Beat all the ingredients until light and fluffy.

Enjoy these at any time of day!

Heart Locket Cookies

Happy Valentines Day!!

Wishing you all and your sweeties (of the non cake and cookie variety) a lovely day.

Itty Bitty Bites

I'd love to spend more time exploring some of the great little cafes that seem to be popping up all over Brisbane. For each one of those that has probably been around forever (I've just never noticed) there are two new cute little spots overloaded with delicious treats ready for the tasting . My problem is I always seem to notice fun looking places to try while in the middle of something else, I always say to myself I'll go there one day but mostly I forget. Lucky for me I can live vicariously through others.

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about a great new blog a friend has started, Itty Bitty Bites Brisbane. If you are visiting Brisbane or live here and are a 'one day' person like me check it out for great revues and beautiful photographs of local cafes. With the mini critics aged from almost one to five and a half there are some great places for children too, maybe if my dining companions were as cute I'd go out for cake and coffee more often.

Photos from Itty Bitty Bites